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Cellphone culture: a global glimpse

Cellphones are as commonplace as a cup of Tim Hortons coffee in Canadian society.
The communication device has embedded itself into the popular culture of almost every country on the planet. But how central a role the cellphone plays depends on where you call home.

To get a glimpse of how Canadian cellphone culture compares with other countries, we headed to Bronte College of Canada in Mississauga, Ont., and interviewed students from a handful of countries around the world.

Mexico

Christian Good, 16Home country: Mexico

Age of acquiring first cellphone:
14

Top things you use your cellphone for?
Phone calls and taking photos.

How is cellphone use different here than in your home country?
It's basically the same, but Canadians use cellphones more than Mexicans do because it's much more costly in Mexico, Good says. "Lots of people can't afford a cellphone and pay the monthly fees." And although Mexico has the same cellphone technology as Canada, Canadians use those capabilities, such as surfing the internet, more often, he says.

How would your daily activities change if someone took away your cellphone?
Good doesn't have a cellphone while studying at Bronte College, he says. While he does have a landline in his dorm room, he would rather use e-mail or instant messaging to communicate.

If you could add any feature to your cellphone, what would it be?
"X-ray vision, so you can see through walls."

China

Todd Song, 19Home country: China

Age of acquiring first cellphone:
14

Top things you use your cellphone for?
Calls.

How is cellphone use different here than in your home country?
Cellphones are used twice as often in China compared with Canada, Song says. And the technology here is, frustratingly, generations behind. "The versions [of the phones] are so low, so bad. In China, we got everything five years earlier ... here, they're dinosaurs." A phone with BlackBerry capabilities is old news back home, he says. In addition to surfing the net and sending text messages, back home he could navigate through the streets of Beijing using GPS on his cellphone.

How would your daily activities change if someone took away your cellphone?
"I can't even imagine. Taking my phone away is like taking a part of my life."

If you could add any feature to your cellphone, what would it be?
Global positioning system, or GPS.

Bangladesh

Marjuk Shareef, 17Home country: Bangladesh

Age of acquiring first cellphone:
15

Top things you use your cellphone for?
Calling, and as a watch.

How is cellphone use different here than in your home country?
Bangladesh has the same technology available, but the service charges are extremely expensive, Shareef says. Because of the steep per-second charges, they will keep their calls short and sweet. "People in Bangladesh are much quicker on the phone. They will quickly say what they have to, then hang up," Shareef says. "Cellphones aren't really used for daily conversation." Despite the hefty cost, or perhaps because of it, the cellphone is a status symbol that people will scrimp and save to get. Many people in Bangladesh will spend the money on a cellphone with a flashy colour screen, instead of a cheaper landline, Shareef says.

How would your daily activities change if someone took away your cellphone?
Without his cellphone, he would feel "completely cut off from society," he says. He relies mainly on his mobile phone to communicate with people, and even though he has a landline at his parents' home, he hardly ever uses it, Shareef says.

If you could add any feature to a cellphone, what would it be?
A simple cash-transfer system, he says. Perhaps his mobile phone could physically print out a money voucher, or it could play a verbal alert to cashiers when making a purchase, Shareef says. "It would say something like, 'Marjuk just gave you 100 dollars.'"

Australia

Daisy Zhang, 15Home country: Australia

Age of acquiring first cellphone:
10

Top things you use your cellphone for?
Text messaging, surfing the internet and chatting online. "I use my cellphone a lot," she says. "My cellphone is my alarm clock, my cellphone is my watch. It basically does everything for me." Because of her phone's capabilities, she doesn't rely on her computer for as many tasks, she says.

How is cellphone use different here than in your home country?
The level of technology in Australia is the same as in Canada, but they use their cellphones more, she says. Her service plan in Australia, however, allowed her to send several messages for free. She would send around 80 text messages daily, she says.

How would your daily activities change if you didn't have your cellphone?
Daisy hasn't had a cellphone since she started studying at Bronte College two months ago. She feels lonely without one, she says.

If you could add any feature to a cellphone, what would it be?
"A 3-D screen," she says. During conversations, the person on the other end of the line would have their image projected as a holograph, as in Star Wars.

Taiwan

Jerry Lin, 16Home country: Taiwan

Age of acquiring first cellphone:
13

Top things you use a cellphone for:
Calls

How is cellphone use different here than in your home country?
In Taiwan, people are able to pay for purchases using their credit card, by punching a few numbers into their cellphones, he says. Otherwise, most of the technology is the same, but new versions of phones come out more frequently, Lin says. "I think for teenagers in Taiwan, it's a tool to show off. People change cellphones every six months, three months.

How would your daily activities change if you didn't have your cellphone?
Lin hasn't gotten a cellphone since he started studying at Bronte College about two months ago. However, he doesn't use the landline provided in his dorm room, he says, but uses his computer to communicate with friends and family.

If you could add any feature to a cellphone, what would it be?
Cable television. Lin wants to be able to watch TV shows, in the palm of his hand, anywhere, he says.

Canada

Sarah Dorrington, 14Home country: Canada

Age of acquiring first cellphone:
13

What are the top things you use your cellphone for?
Calls. She formerly used her cellphone for text messaging and surfing the internet, but the charges were too pricey. When the hefty bill came in, her parents stripped her of those privileges, she says.

How would your daily activities change if someone took away your cellphone?
She wouldn't talk to her friends as often, she says. Her main ways of communicating with her friends are via cellphone and instant messaging programs, such as MSN messenger. Dorrington has access to her parents' landline, which she uses when her parents take away her cellphone. When that happens, the phone is swamped with friends trying to get through, she says. "All my friends try to call at the same time."

If you could add any feature to a cellphone, what would it be?
A built-in GPS to pinpoint where other people are, she says. "This way, you don't have to call and ask, 'Where are you?'"

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